Pages - Menu

Monday, 16 July 2018

10 Questions: Campaign Committee + Bill Of Rights EP Review

(Photo Credit: Smoke & Honey Photography via Campaign Committee)

It's been over a month since I last published one of these interviews (because I didn't have any others to publish) and I'm kind of feeling as though I should change things up a bit in terms of my "interviews". I use that term very loosely as you might have guessed. Anyway, this one features Campaign Committee, who're a hardcore punk band from Boston (Mass, US). They also sent me a link to their most recent EP, so I've tagged a review onto the bottom of this peice.

Four years ago Strout and Kobialka’s band were invited to play a basement show. Their third member couldn’t make it work, so they decided to whip up a couple of tracks for fun and ended up enlisting Strout’s longtime friend Garogosian on vocals and found someone to play bass for the show. Like most good things, we decided to try and run with it longer. A couple shows, bass players, and a year later, our EP "Let’s Die" finally materialised.

Have any of you played in previous bands and are you in any other bands currently?

Strout and Kobialka played together in a band called Heel and Arrow up until last year. Simpson has played in a band called Das Muerte.

Who writes the lyrics/music? Is it collective?

Less of a collective and more like one person having an idea and 3 other people ruining it for them with their own. Go Team.

What subjects do you cover in your lyrics?

We were recently asked for a lyric book… probably won’t happen.

Are there any bands that have influenced you?

Many, however, not all of our influences are mutually appreciated, nor are they all worn on our sleeves. Blood Brothers, Today is the Day, Refused, Starkweather, Small Brown Bike, and Cave In are a few significant ones.

What are your favourite albums/EPs at the moment?

Well, this might be a bit fleeting and totally off genre, so instead we’d rather have you focus on checking out our answer to #9.

What is your favourite gig/tour story?

You always remember your first. We have yet to tour.

What is your local heavy/punk scene like and who should we check out (band-wise)?

Psychic Weight, I Am Become Death, Martyrs, and Aneurysm are nice humans and we enjoy playing shows with them.

What are your favourite tipples/foods?

Strout really likes Palomas, and Garogosian likes calling Simpson “Clam Chowder”. This is as about as useful of an answer you’re going to get from us on this one.

Labels: Self-Released

Formats: Digital

Release Date: 22 Jun 2018

Tracklist:

1. Let's All Say We're Nihilists Then Cry When No One Likes Us

2. Three Haikus And A Tangent Thought

3. Desperate Places

4. Souvenir

5. Fledgling

Here goes with five sharp hardcore-punk songs. Initially Campaign Committee strikes you as a another garage punk band and their music does feature elements of that, but the vocals on Let’s All Say We’re Nihilists Then Cry When No One Likes Us tell another story. They’re screechy and extreme (but not in the same way as The Body, for example). There’s also the more straightforward hardcore punk shouting going on and Campaign Committee does have a good sense of humour. The music is great and Three Haikus And A Tangent Thought is a mix of all kinds of elements from punk and even emo-violence/post-hardcore in parts. It may seem like I’m over-analysing this all slightly, but I can’t change who I am or how I perceive things. It’s good, which is all that should matter.

Desperate Places sees the band experimenting with more off-kilter tempos and slow/fast parts. There’s a sense of rousing creativity flowing through it and some nostalgia too. The bringing together of chaos and cinematic melody goes further on Souvenir and might remind you of the likes of Glassjaw, Cave In and Time In Malta, which aren’t bad comparisons. EP closer Fledgling highlights a band that are clearly very talented musically and in the song-writing department and while it might have been easy to write them off at first listen, you’d be an idiot to have done so. Coming into this review I was feeling quite a large sense of ambivalence but that’s gone and it’s been replaced with a feeling of excitement and a rush of energy. That's about as positive as it gets!